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Portal Knights is a new sandbox action-RPG from 505 Games and Keen games

Publisher 505 Games and developer Keen Games are looking to get into a new sandbox RPG that emphasizes on exploration in more ways than one, with portals opening up entirely new worlds.

Ozzie Mejia

February 4, 2016 6:00 AM

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Publisher 505 Games and German development studio Keen Games (Sacred 3, Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery) are teaming up for an ambitious effort that looks to bring players into a whole new world of magic. Then they can be transported to a different world of magic. Portal Knights is a new sandbox action-RPG, with the idea to engage in traditional dungeon crawling and RPG adventure, while also stumbling onto new gateways to entirely different worlds.

Portal Knights players will begin their game as one of three classes (Warrior, Mage, or Ranger) and construct them from scratch from the game's character creator. The game then begins in a 3D sandbox with an art style inspired by games like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, where those characters can journey across randomly-generated environments. Caves, mines, and dungeons will be in place throughout the world, filled with hazards, monsters, and bosses and ripe for exploration. But while players will be able to find the typical treasures, they'll also find valuable items called portal shards. Putting enough portal shards together will open up portals to entirely different worlds of varying environments, where characters can explore further and find whole new piles of loot.

Keen Games is aiming for accessibility with Portal Knights, with the game's director explicitly aiming to reduce the need for Wikis or any such guides. The idea is for newcomers to be able to jump in right away and understand the game's systems, which may be a tall order, considering that there are character skill trees, recipes containing over 100 items, mining, and base building. It may be tough to grasp all of that immediately, but with Portal Knights set to hit Steam Early Access first, the development team will be aiming to work out a number of kinks with the aid of the game's community.

While Portal Knights is ripe for solo adventuring, friends will be able to get in on this together. Up to four players can play cooperatively and get the full experience, whether it's battling a giant boss together or decoarating a castle with one another.

Look for Portal Knights to hit Steam Early Access on February 25. For more, check out the video below.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?